The importing of East European bumblebees to work in polytunnels adds to the
dangers Britain's native bees are facing

At the end of last year, Natural England, a powerful quango, decreed that “non-native bumblebees will only be permitted for use in greenhouses or polytunnels and all reasonable steps must be taken to prevent their escape”. Easier said, you might think, than done. A bumblebee that looks as though it is contemplating making a break for freedom from a polytunnel full of strawberries will not turn back if you call its name.

All this matters because about 50,000 colonies of bumblebee, mainly the buff-tailed kind, are imported to help with pollination each year, mostly from eastern Europe, which produces a million colonies a year. Scientists at Sussex University have found that they often carry diseases. Britain already fears for the future of its honey bees. Our many species of bumblebee must not be exposed to similar danger.